Yesterday we rolled out a new feature to a limited set of people (1000 users) that surfaces people we think may have similar tastes in books to you. We try to find people with many books on their shelves that are similar to you so you'll be able to browse their bookshelves and find a few hidden gems you weren't aware of. We'll continue to refine the logic and once we've worked out a few kinks, roll out to everyone. Please leave us feedback on how you think this should work and if you're one of the lucky 1000 users who has the "similar tastes" module in the right rail of the "my shelf" page, please don't hesitate at all. Beta feature: Similar Tastes 34
Posted by Tim
on Thursday, May 08
Yesterday we rolled out a new feature to a limited set of people (1000 users) that surfaces people we think may have similar tastes in books to you. We try to find people with many books on their shelves that are similar to you so you'll be able to browse their bookshelves and find a few hidden gems you weren't aware of. We'll continue to refine the logic and once we've worked out a few kinks, roll out to everyone. Please leave us feedback on how you think this should work and if you're one of the lucky 1000 users who has the "similar tastes" module in the right rail of the "my shelf" page, please don't hesitate at all. Comments
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That sounds great but maybe it should go off ratings or genre or something because I hate it when I read a book (or watched a movie) and then get recommendations from it even though it hated it.
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Definitely a good idea to get reading suggestions... I'm usually starving for advices. But good ones, thus including BOTH positive and negative ratings to compute profile is definitely the way to go.
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ya I think that should be gr8! Coz many a times i'm lost and really can't understand wat 2 read nxt. So gettin suggestions will be good.
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If this is the app that sends recommendations of books I've never read or added to my list to my friends on Visual Bookshelf automatically, then I hate it. If it's not, can someone tell me how to deactivate this feature?
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Great idea. Obviously genre and other books by the same author are key links. I would go so far as to suggest commom buzzwords in reviews, although I suspect "wonderful" "terrific" "loved it" "heartbreaking" or whatever may be overused. Some readers' lists are so eclectic it's a challenge to find something in common with them except, perhaps, a desire have an eclectic reading list! Good luck- thanks for making the efforts to bring readers together. Nancy Reich Kibbutz Yahel Israel
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Sounds like a good idea to me. I enjoy getting recommendations from other literary enthusiasts.
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There is definately a disconnect between how indivual people are rating books and then how they are rated against eachother. Example: One of my friends rates books she has not read and has no interest in reading as I HATE, while I on the other hand rate those books INDIFFERENT. I only rate books I HATE if I have actually read them and hated them. Given these personal rating styles, it looks like we are very different in what books we like to read, but the fact is we are extremely alike in our book tastes, it's just our use of the rating tool that is quite different. So it is only effective if everyone rates books by the same rules, which undoubtedly, they wont.
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Fantastic idea. I 'discovered' Raymond Carver through some one else in an article. Also Milan Kundera through an article in Q Magazine (when they used to review books as well).
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Sounds like a great idea to me, I would like to hear from other readers, and maybe try an author I wouldn't normally. I also love to hear what other people are reading.
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Marvellous idea lads, keep them coming, as long as it's based on ratings it's fine by me.
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Bit worried that the book list, might be a bit literal - so if I wanted to read a book about the 1948 Olympics, I wouldn't really want to read another one. If it's voluntary to join up I'd give it a go. I'm a fan of all kinds of books, but worry that the service might be better for the website than individual readers. But as long as there's a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card, why not?
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Good idea!
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I'm always looking for more books to read and don't mind what is suggested as I have a very eclectic view of books so would like to see the good and the bad.
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I am a fan of all kinds of books as are my fellow commenters as it seems - as an eclectic reader and reader of all good /sometimes bad books - I love reading! So any suggestion would be good to me really. Does this help at all with the logic? My similar tastes would be GOOD books, genre does not matter.
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Books Good!
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Great idea! It should have an opt-in / opt-out feature. Simply browsing someone else's bookshelf is not that interesting to me personally. However, if the "similarity" is based on reviewed ratings, that may make me browse. Also, adding some analog attribute scales (slider widgets) that define "similarity" as filters will really help. How about providing incentives for posting reviews?! - surely you can convince the publishers about that one!
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I have always wanted something that is like a target. The person at the bulls-eye has the highest percentage of the same books as me listed. The next five or six ranked by percentage, are in the next circle out, and then the outside circle has a many pictures as you can fit, based on their rankings of match with my bookshelf. Some may be down in the 20% commonality by the time you get to the outside ring. And, of course it depends how many books I have, as to how accurate the matchings are going to be. For example, if I have only listed two books, one of which is a Harry Potter, then lots of people are going to get 50% comonality with me... I figure that anyone who gets over 75% commonality with my bookshelf, must be a hell of a person, and I should invite them to be my friend. I'm unsure about this bit, but it might be nice to be able to put in rules which say, "I want a circle of friends which includes everyone over 70% match." And this group would be dynamic and change as each person added and removed books...
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I only rate and review books that I have actually read. Otherwise, it becomes a pointless exercise of blatant book/author promotion or attack in order to increase sales or at least make it seem that way. On the other hand, some reviews are just plain stupid (i.e. I like this book because it fucking rocks, man!).
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Let's give it a try...
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The Internet Movie Database (www.iadb.org) had an algorithm to predict your movie taste that was surprisingly good in predicting my taste after asking me to rate only 10 movies. It recommends movies I actually have seen and liked but have not rate yet. Maybe what works would be to create a game. Have users rate ten books or twenty on scale from 1 to 10. And then, the system should challenge you to submit the title of a book, and then the system would rate based upon the knowledge it has of you, and if the system is good in predicting, you give it a star or something, so it keeps on learning.
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This sounds like a very good idea, but possibly very difficult to impliment. Obviously there are writers who can be grouped together--and I think that's the best way to go about it--but then again some writers of the same movement vary incredibly from each other. There are obvious distinctions: minimalist, maximalist, plot-driven, character-driven, but then there is so much difference in each writer's distinctive voice. It would have to be based off of quantity (i.e. "you have two Marquez novels on your shelf, so-and-so has three and one by Juan Rulfo). Those are my two cents.
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I am actually more interested in finding people with similar interests who want to discuss them, rather than get more recommendations for books to read.
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Sounds good... n since it tries to evaluate the preferences of a reader on the basis of wat books they hav already read, the whole system would be very personalised n effective in suggesting to users wat may interest them next. I'm interested in trying in out n would love to help out.
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Good idea, if it leads to interaction among like minded readers. Readers with similar inclinations will be able to build upon that for mutual benefit. The groupings may be done on the basis of reviews and/or ratings. I like to read books of all kinds. But I also hold strong views on many issues and would like to discuss them in the light of books.
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Is anybody here one of the first thousand doing the test run? I'm looking forward to giving this a try.
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I like the idea of matching up with people with similiar interests. However, i'd be wary of an app like this, if it only matched up titles, and did not have secondary/tertiary levels to the feature that also matched up ratings (good & bad.) If you really hated a book & some one else lvoed it, and you get matched just based on the title, that could be problematic. Conversely, if you both hated the book, then you might have something in common (so don't just match the "good" ratings.) I'm curious to see how this works out. Good luck!
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As another postee? mentioned i would like to meet people who like the same books as myself
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Think you should be able to flag if you want a suggestion of something similar as agree with previous comment that I don't want suggestions for every book I read.
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I'd really like to be included. I think it is a great idea. I would also like to find people who can discuss rather than get recommendations. Thanks
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great idea cont me in
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Sounds Great! I do think the system for matching people should only take into account books people rate and actually read, not just want to read.
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I think it is a fantastic idea; create a way to link similar taste with reading; need to match the rating otherwise we could read similar book and not enjoying it the same; I am in!
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This sounds like a great idea. I hope that you will be able to extend it to everyone.
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This sounds like a good idea - and I agree with other comments that ratings should be involved somewhere. I hope this idea will extend to everyone - however be purely an option as I wouldn't want to get sent random lists of books willy nilly. I also would like to see a "Who write like this" site so if you like a particular style of one writer you can easily find other authors with similiar styles...unless there is already this option and I just haven't found it yet ?????
